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EU To Open Market To More U.S. Beef

The European Union (EU) and U.S. Trade Representative agreed Nov. 30 to grant more market access for U.S. products to the EU following the EU’s enlargement to 25 members last year.

The 10 new countries that joined the EU in May 2004, including Poland and Hungary, adopted the EU’s tariffs and quotas, which resulted in a loss of market access for many American agricultural and industrial products.

According to the new agreement, which will come into force before July 1, 2006, after the EU’s member states have signed off, a variety of new and extended quotas will allow more U.S. beef into Europe.

The agreement will open a tariff rate quota of 242,074 metric tons of corn and a tariff rate quota of 10,000 tons of corn gluten.

Under world trade rules, trade partners must be compensated if market access is reduced as a result of joining a common market, like the EU. If the EU and U.S. didn’t come to this agreement, the U.S. could have imposed retaliatory trade measures to compensate for loss of market access.

According to the EU, it still has to complete similar negotiations with Canada, Argentina and Malaysia.